How do you play a game like Darksiders on that thing? Well Valve gave us honestly nothing at all but with till the beta hardware comes. This thing will probably fail because you can't have that approach when it comes to new Consumer Tech reveals. I was at least hoping for a Video of how SteamOS worked.

even after some hours after the announcment i still feel like looking at the back of a controller when i see that steam controller. i have never been that disappointed with a new controller. sure i havent tried it yet but i just dont think it will work as good as analog sticks.
and i dont understand the shoulder buttons. blue and orange portal. is it 2 shoulder buttons or 4 ???
and whats with the face buttons? 2 of them can only be pressed when releasing the left field for control. so i wont be able to move my character when i want to press those 2 face buttons.

i am confused.

i really like innovations but i dont see any improvment to something like the xbox360 controller. i never had any problems with analog sticks (if they are concave). these fields are ment to be more precise like a mouse but i dont need that.

I don't like the new controller at all. I suppose I will have to wait and try it to see, but using trackpads has never been as good as a mouse or joystick. The button placement also looks difficult. I really can't see how most of my Steam games could even work with this thing.

The Steam Controller (or whatever it’s officially called) is strange. Where your thumbs normally rest when holding a controller, there are just the two little circular track pads just like what you see in the pictures. In the center you have your A,B,X,Y buttons surrounding what I was told would be a touch screen display at some point. The touchpad / screen in the center of the controller wasn’t enabled so I can’t really speak on that. The A,B,X,Y buttons surrounding the touch screen seemed to be used more for your standard “Back” button configuration. Think of them not as A,B,X,Y but additional buttons that can perform some functionality. You obviously wouldn’t play a game with those buttons being your primary action buttons. You use the left and right circle pads as your primary inputs.

I played through Spelunky and the controller worked great. As I was playing I was describing to the engineers the twitch movements that go into Spelunky. Anyone that’s played it knows what I’m talking about, but to explain further there are often times in Spelunky where you will find yourself in a situation where you will panic and need to compensate. For example, lets say you are jumping on a platform, below it are spikes, above you is a bat. If the bat hits you, you’ll die because you’ll fall into the spikes. If you try to jump on the bat, chances are you’ll hit the bat and fall and possibly die. So in situations like this you find yourself tap jumping with air compensation to whip a bat while still staying on this one tile platform. The Steam controller handled this just fine. The nubs I mentioned above would have solidified the platforming experience better, but again, those might get thrown in as they approach final hardware. I got to the Ice Caves and then a stupid Skeleton knocked me off a platform to my death…then I attempted a daily run and died immediately…pretty much the standard Spelunky play through.

Sounds like an interesting controller tested to work with multiple types of games. I'm guessing one of the main reasons for the design was Valve was looking at how they could get Dota 2 to work within the confines of the living room. But the tech to make all this possible (touch screen, high res touchpad with haptics) is pretty expensive which makes me wonder the specs of the Valve steam machine and how expensive the actual package will be. The Wii U gampad was apart of the reason for the WIi U's initial price and I can see Steam Controller being more expensive than the Gameapad.

WAT!

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The biggest selling point of the steambox before these announcements were the potential low price point as a way to get into the Living room. A low price point coupled with the Steam Sales would be a compelling. But now after seeing the announcements I'm not convinced this won't be completely terrible. The biggest problem with the announcement is Par for course for Valve being so Vague when all three next gen consoles which is the biggest Obstacle Steam Machine has are coming out in less than 60 days. I plan to have at least two consoles by late next year and Valve has done a terrible job of showing me why I should pick steam machine instead of Xbone/Wii U.

Plus I don't think Vavle has first party strengths to the extent that the big three do.

WAT!

Hey check out my awesome new youtube channel shingi70 where I update weekly on the latest gaming and comic news form a level headed perspective.

Then it should be fine. You have 2 analog trackpads that can also be clicked and you have 6 buttons you can use without moving your thumbs from the pads. Or do you need more than six buttons in a fight? Also, their controller is NOT required. You can use a 360 or ps3 controller if you feel more comfortable with them. And wouldn't be surprised if you can use xbone/ps4 controllers in the future.

One thing no one has talked about is the asymmetric upgrade path. Instead of having to upgrade every fifth year you can upgrade when you want to. This means that power users can upgrade more often to get better graphics and more casual users can upgrade more seldom. This also means that your entire gaming catalog doesn't suddenly becomes obsolete.

About the price, the boxes will probably be more expensive, but on the other hand the games are cheaper, especially with steam sales. So if you play lots of games it will probably be cheaper.

I assume these new machines will be able to take any other company's controller as well, much like PCs currently do.

Controllers aside, I still don't see the point in this move by Valve, and I'm a HUGE PC gamer. In fact, I'm kind of offended. Consoles are consoles: ease of "plug-and-play" use, simplified controls, and fun split-screen multiplayer opportunities. Why are we trying to merge PC gaming and console gaming? Who asked for this? No PC gamers I know, AND no console gamers I know. All that we are going to accomplish here is to dilute the unique qualities of both types of gaming.

As it stands, any PC gamer who can be bothered to spend about 50 bucks and a half hour's worth of time can easily set up a PC - HD TV setup with wireless 360/dualshock controller to boot. I'm assuming Valve is going after a market consisting of console gamers who have little technical knowledge but will say, "Oh, this puppy can crank out prettier graphics than my PS4, AND I don't need to know how to use a PC to make it work." No self-respecting PC gamer would get one of these boxes over a truly customizable build-it-yourself PC. So, am I correct here? Are these "steamboxes" mostly for console gamers?

Valve is afraid that Microsoft and Apple are going to close their desktop systems to be locked down like Windows Phone and ios.

I actually think that's a valid concern, though Microsoft should be quaking in their boots after the backlash that is Windows 8 occurred. Sure, it's mostly gamers who are unhappy with it, but sales have not been anywhere near "good" for the OS, and Linux-based operating systems are gaining popularity even amongst amateur PC users. From that perspective, I do think Valve's Linux-based OS is an excellent move for the company, but I still fail to see how these "Steam machines" are going to garner any favor from most PC gamers. If you want to play a console game, you play it on a console or plug in a 360 controller. If you want to play a "real" PC game, a keyboard and mouse is the only way to go - this, frankly, "strange" controller is not going to substitute for the pinpoint accuracy a mouse can give.

So, I guess what I'm saying is, I can see the awesomeness that this OS can be, but I still don't see the need for these Steam Machines.

Because with the execption of nerds who hate change and people who like to spread FUD windows 8 has been pretty well recived and has had solid sales. Windows 8.1 is getting a lot of good press. The main problem people hated Windows 8 for was Metro wasn't an optional thing or a tablet mode. Most people say Metro is great you have a touch screen device (I have a touch screen laptop and windows 8 is pretty awesome). Surface has done a bit poorly but Surface Pro has done pretty well all things considered.The thing is the average consumer doesn't really care and in most cases after learning to use it like the Metro interface and all new PCs come with it. Valve still doesn't control hardware which is pretty damn important. The average user won't leave the Windows/Mac OS X eco system for any sort of Linux environment. valve thinks if they can play the console game they can gain traction for steam OS because not even the most hardcore PC gys would leave WIndows for an OS with only 2500 games.

Microsoft has actually started marketing WIndows 8 and WIndows Phone with competent marketing.

valve is banking that hardware with fuel the adoption of the OS with Hardware and ween Game Development off of windows. unfortunately for Gabe that won't happen as Windows is now avaible in three form factors (Tablets, PCs, Hybrids) and with two app environments (Legacy which will keep people on windows, and Metro which is the Future of the Platform. They're also pushing heavily the cross platform development envioment between Windows/Xbox One/Windows Phone.

Regardless how this ends up I kind of hope Vavle makes a splash despite this most probably going the way of 3DO.

WAT!

Hey check out my awesome new youtube channel shingi70 where I update weekly on the latest gaming and comic news form a level headed perspective.

I'm not quite following this. Maybe I'm not quite tech-savvy enough, but don't most PC gamers already have no issue with playing games where they want? It's not exactly difficult to just hook up your PC/laptop to your TV with an HDMI cable, and you can use whatever wireless controller, keyboard, or mouse you want from your couch. Steam is a fantastic platform for PC gaming, nearing perfection, but I'm just not seeing what service or demand the SteamOS satisfies that the current software doesn't already provide.

Or am I missing something?

So Anakin kneels before Monster Mash and pledges his loyalty to the graveyard smash.

I'm not quite following this. Maybe I'm not quite tech-savvy enough, but don't most PC gamers already have no issue with playing games where they want? It's not exactly difficult to just hook up your PC/laptop to your TV with an HDMI cable, and you can use whatever wireless controller, keyboard, or mouse you want from your couch. Steam is a fantastic platform for PC gaming, nearing perfection, but I'm just not seeing what service or demand the SteamOS satisfies that the current software doesn't already provide.

Or am I missing something?

Plugging your PC into your TV sucks because the USer Interface wasn't made to work that way. Even in Big Picture mode you lose a lot of what makes steam....well Steam.

WAT!

Hey check out my awesome new youtube channel shingi70 where I update weekly on the latest gaming and comic news form a level headed perspective.

''We just plugged it in, and it worked,'' he said. ''We didn't have special support for it or anything. It worked really, really well. I was really impressed with the mouse imitation. It doesn't feel like a trackpad.
...
Remo added that he doesn't really consider the pads to be "trackpads," which, to players and developers, often represent poor feedback. "This is just the opposite of that," he said.

“I need more time with it to be able to tell whether it's a full replacement, but for third person and first person games it felt like it could be a replacement. For strategy games and other games with more complicated control schemes I need more hands-on time with the gamepad.”